Accurate weight and balance calculations of a vehicle, and in particular vehicles such as aircraft, are critical to the efficient operation of the vehicle and overall vehicle performance. With respect to aircraft, while the weight and center of gravity of an empty fueled aircraft are known with a high degree of accuracy, the payload weight and center of gravity, which includes cargo and/or passengers, is highly variable and subject to relatively large inaccuracies in measurement of weight and distribution. Because of these inaccuracies, operators of vehicles carrying passengers and/or cargo must curtail their operational weight and vehicle center of gravity envelope in order to protect against the unknown and highly variable passenger and cargo payload weight and balance.
The current solution for determining the weight and balance of an aircraft payload, which includes cargo and passengers, is accomplished by using published standard weights for passengers and for bulk cargo, and/or actual weights for containerized cargo. In some cases, such as with small aircraft, the actual weights and locations of passengers and cargo are used to calculate the center of gravity. However, this approach is inaccurate because of the compounding weight and balance discrepancy for every passenger and piece of cargo. Consequently, operators of the aircraft must curtail the aircraft operating envelope to account for these errors in the weight and balance. This reduces the capacity and efficiency of the aircraft, requiring increased and unnecessary fuel burn, decreased range or payload capability, limited loading flexibility, and exposure to on-ground aft tipping during loading and unloading of cargo and/or passengers.
Cargo operators also may employ an on-board weight and balance system (OBWBS) that detects the nose gear oleo extension and warns ground crews when aircraft tipping is imminent. However, this system is conservative and thereby greatly restricts the loading flexibility for the cargo operators. There is currently no system that can actively monitor and determine the weight and center of gravity of the payload with accuracy sufficient to eliminate the reduced operational weight and balance envelope. The OBWS is not accurate enough to allow the operators the flexibility to offload cargo and passengers quickly before potentially tripping the current overly conservative tip alarm.
Currently, the weight and center of gravity of the occupants or passengers of an aircraft may be approximated by the airline using information from the airline reservation and ticketing system. In some cases, flight attendants must perform a manual count of passengers seated on the aircraft. The flight attendants walk through the cabin and manually count the number of adults and children in every zone. This count of adults and children is converted to a rough passenger weight per predetermined location or zone, which is calculated and then entered into the flight management computer (FMC) by the flight crew. Such a manual process can be inaccurate, and is time consuming, which can delay the turnaround time of the aircraft. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for rapidly and accurately calculating the passenger weight and center of gravity of an aircraft.